Slave SATA HDD not reading, locked up

fhrozor

Honorable
Feb 6, 2013
2
0
10,510
Windows XP SP3

Hi guys. I would really appreciate any comments, input, feedback, or any help at all in this issue.

I have a WD 500GB Blue (WD5000AAKS) SATA drive as my slave drive. I have had it about 3 years. I have pooled most of my saved downloads, etc. on this drive.

I have hit this drive hard with read/write data access over the last 3 years. It has been used a lot more than my standard 160GB WDBLUE holding only Windows and occasional My Document/Pictures usage.

Just recently (maybe about a week ago) my browser usage has become sluggish. I have my cache pooled to my slave drive. I blamed this on my ISP and took it for what it was.

However, 2 days ago I attempted to download a file of several hundred megabytes to my slave drive. About 1/4 way through I received some type of "write access error". I attempted to resume the download several times, which would progress further but alas it kept giving me the error.

I went to my computer and browsed through my slave drive. One thing I did notice is that in opening some folders (double-click) it would freeze for only a second or so. I compared this to my main drive where opening folders was instant. I clicked around on my slave drive and sometimes it was slow and sometimes it was instant.

TO THE POINT: I restarted my PC a day ago and I got passed the splash boot screen, and then a black screen. Nothing. No mouse just a black screen.

I attempted a few restarts and still a black screen. I disconnected my slave drive and rebooted. My computer booted just fine.

I installed Windows Recovery Console and bought a this HDD dock here:
http://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-BlacX-eSATA-Docking-Station/dp/B001A4HAFS

I attempted to boot in safe mode AND recovery with my slave drive connected.

In safe mode, it runs the typical files /partition/etcetc/file.sys, etc. etc.

But freezes when it gets to giveio.sys.

When botting in recovery, it starts like normal saying "Entering recovery mode" with a loading bar... but after that it goes to a black screen.

I tried the dock I bought hoping to be able to move some files and/or at least format the drive.

This particular dock has a slot-like insert method where you can push the drive down into it and has a power button.

I hooked it up, put my drive in and powered it on. It makes a sound like a new hardware was found, but then windows locks down. When I try to open my computer, or anything it just hangs.

However, when I push the power-off button on the dock unit, windows instantly unfreezes and everything is smooth as butter.

This similarly happened when I entered recovery. I was hoping to run chkdsk on the slave drive but I am unable to. I powered on the dock and booted my PC. Entered recovery and it just goes to black. However, at that black screen, if I power-off the dock via the button, after about 15 seconds the black screen goes to the Recovery Console.

I am sorry for this long explanation... but basically I am trying to recover data or at least reformat the disk. I would like to run recovery tools, chkdsk, or other HDD analysis software, at boot-up (or DOS) but am unable to get anywhere.

Any suggestions or help anyone? I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much.
 
Also the BIOS recognizes this drive...

"WD etc, etc. SMART enabled/okay, etc."

But again, will not boot in to Windows GUI with the drive connected, etc.

Any help, guys?